During the recently concluded 2006 AutoPacific Brand Satisfaction Awards, the Honda brand received the top spot for the Top Mainstream Brand category. AutoPacific, Inc. is a noted automotive consulting firm. To actually provide the market and the audience with information regarding automobiles and within that category, AutoPacific created a study regarding the 2006 model year owner satisfaction research for brands and product segments and the results were just most recently concluded. The Vehicle Satisfaction Award of AutoPacific is also known as the VSA and it is an industry benchmark for objective measuring of how satisfied an owner is with their new car or light truck.

Honda took first place for the top rated Mainstream Brand segment. Not only that, but the company as a whole had some other things yet to be happy and proud of. The Honda Ridgeline became the top rated Sport Utility Truck. And the Honda Odyssey became the top rated Minivan.

The Honda Ridgeline has been in production just this year and it is a midsize pickup truck. Its competition include the Dodge Dakota, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford Explorer Sport Trac, and Subaru Baja. As per the Honda Odyssey, this minivan has been produced going back to 1995. It competes in the market with the Toyota Sienna, Ford Freestar, Nissan Quest, Dodge Caravan, Kia Sedona and Mazda5.

The AutoPacific VSA tries to establish numerical satisfaction ratings for every car and light truck in the United States. How do they do such a task? They take owner satisfaction and calculate it across 45 specific areas that are related to a vehicle's operation, comfort, safety, and overall purchase or lease experience.